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REPORT ON A TRIP TO NORTHWEST MISSOURI TO INVESTIGATE 

 GRASSHOPPER INJURIES. 



By Herbert Osborx, Ames, Iowa. 



Iq accordance with iustructiousreceived October 29, 1802, 1 started by- 

 first train for St. Joseph, Mo., that being apparently tlie most avaihible 

 point from which to work. No definite instrnctions further than 

 " northwest Missouri" were received, and the only notice I had seen of 

 grasshopper injuries was the following, which I had clipped from the 

 Daily Iowa State Register at the time it appeared : 



DAMAGE BY GRASSHOPPERS. 



Kansas City, October 7. — Myriads of grasshoppers have appeared in Buchanan 

 and adjoining counties iu Kansas and are raiiidly destroyiug'the .vinter wheat. The 

 hoppers are not of the variety that appeared in 1879, but the coiumou field grasshop- 

 pers that stay in one locality the entire season. The warm weather has hatched them 

 out by the millions, and unless cold rains or fi-ost comes immense damage will be 

 done. Fourteen counties in Missouri also report them. 



In Buchanan county, in the vicinity of St. Joseph, I was only out a 

 few miles from the city, but the fields examined were doubtless fairly 

 representative for the county. 



I found Melanoplus femur ruhrum fairly plenty in the adult stage and 

 noticed some of the adults copulating, which would not indicate a spe- 

 cially early deposition of eggs. M. atlanis also occurred here, but iu 

 less numbers than femur-rnbr urn. 



No larv;e were seen, but a few specimens of Pezotettix were taken, 

 and the strong resemblance of these to undeveloped Melanoplus could 

 easily lead one, on superficial examination, to think they had young 

 femur-ruhrum. M. differentialis was also present, but very few living 

 specimens remained. Other species noticed were Bissosteira Carolina 

 and Oncoptoloplms sordidus^ both in about the ordinary abundance. 

 Larvae that I took to be those of Tragocephala viridis and T. infuscata 

 were quite plentiful, and it seems to me quite possible that larva? of 

 these species which hatch normally in late summer may, if seen in num- 

 bers, have been supposed to be the young of the more common species 

 and given rise to the reports of the premature hatching of grasshopper 

 eggs. These, if hatching at the usual time, would have been only 

 large enough three or four weeks ago to be recognized as newly hatched 

 grasshoppers. 1 could find no newly-hatched Melanoplus, not any 

 signs of dead individuals, nor any indications of eggs hatching, and, 

 though 1 had not facilities for extensive diggings, 1 could not discover 

 any unusual number of eggs deposited. 



Upon inquiry I was informed that no damage to winter wheat was 

 known in the vicinity, but that some had been reported near Savannah 

 in the next county north. 



